There is no doubt that this is a mysterious passage. The Scripture wishes to demonstrate the origin of Moses, because his action now required it. His descent began from the firstborn of Jacob, that is, Reuben, and then to Simeon, and then to Levi. It went no further, because Moses was descended from Levi. These men who are mentioned here had already been mentioned among the seventy-five men in whom Israel entered Egypt. For God did not want the first or the second tribe, but the third—that is, the tribe of Levi—to be the priestly tribe.

For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the book of Exodus—Aser, which is, by interpretation, instruction, and the second Elkana, which is translated possession of God, and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered congregation of the father—yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit and one voice and one soul, which worked in true harmony. And the three speak as one, As the hart pants after the springs of the water, so pants my soul after you, O God.^[1]

Moses says, Behold, I have a weak voice, how will Pharaoh listen to me? He appears to excuse himself for the weakness of his voice, not only due to the great number of the people but also due to the condition of one man. It would be remarkable if his voice were so weak that he could not be heard even by one man. Or perhaps the royal dignity did not allow them to speak at close range? For God says to Moses, Behold, I gave you as a god to Phar-aoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

Why in the world, after reading that this name was also given to Moses, when it is stated, I have made you as god to Pharaoh, should they deny this title to Christ who we find has been constituted not a god to Pharaoh but rather the Lord and God of all creation?

Moses was appointed god of the Egyptians when he who was giving the revelation spoke to him in this manner: I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh. Therefore the title conveys an indication of some power, either protective or active. But the divine nature in all the names which may be contrived remains, just as it is, inexplicable, as is our teaching.

So Moses was a god to Pharaoh, but a servant of God, as it is written. The stars which illumine the night are hidden by the sun, so much that you could not even know of their existence by daylight. A little torch brought near a great blaze is neither destroyed nor seen nor extinguished; but it is all one blaze, the bigger one prevailing over the other.

He so far exceeded the dignity of his human state that he was given the title of god as we read in the Scriptures, where the Lord speaks: I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh. He was in fact victorious over all his passions and was not allured by the enticements of the world. He enveloped this our habitation here in the body with a purity that savored of a citizenship that is in heaven.^[1] By directing his mind and by subduing and castigating his flesh with an authority that was almost regal, he was given the name of god, by whom he had modeled his life through numerous acts of perfect virtue.

But if they think [Christ] is called God because he had an in-dwelling of the Godhead within him, as many holy men were (for the Scripture calls them gods to whom the word of God came)^[1]—they do not place him before other men but think he is to be compared with them. They consider him to be the same as he granted other men to be, even as he says to Moses: I have made you a god unto Pharaoh. Similarly it is also said in the psalms: I have said, you are gods.^[2]

I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High. Let Eunomius hear this, let Arius, who says that the Son of God is son in the same way that we are. That we are gods is not so by nature but by grace. But to as many as received him he gave the power of becoming sons of God.^[1] I made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods. I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High.^[2] Imagine the grandeur of our dignity; we are called gods and sons! I have made you gods just as I made Moses a god to Pharaoh, so that after you are gods, you may be made worthy to be sons of God. Reflect upon the divine words: With God there is no respect of persons.^[3] God did not say, I said, you are gods, you kings and princes; but all to whom I have given equally a body, a soul and a spirit, I have given equally divinity and adoption. We are all born equal, emperors and paupers; and we die as equals. Our humanity is of one quality.

Hence it is that through the influence of these three things Moses is made a god: for the sake of his military triumphs he brings all the elements under his control. He bids the sea to withdraw, its waves to solidify, its bottom to become dry^[1] and the sky to drop its rain. He supplies food, compels the winds to scatter meats,^[2] illumines the night with the splendor of the sun, tempers the sun by the veil of the cloud.^[3] He strikes the rock to make it yield from its fresh wound cool streams of water for those who thirst.^[4] He first gives to the earth heaven’s law, writes down the norms of living, sets the terms of disciplinary control.^[5]

I say that they are gods, lords and kings not by nature but because they have ruled over and dominated sufferings and because they have kept undebased the likeness of the divine image to which they were made—for the image of the king is also called a king. Finally . . . they have freely been united to God and [by] receiving him as a dweller within themselves have through association with him become by grace what he is by nature.

God constantly says, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and gives the reason why he does this. He says, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and fulfill my signs and my portents in Egypt, as if the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart were necessary so that God’s signs might be multiplied and fulfilled in Egypt. God makes good use of bad hearts for what he wishes to show to those who are good or those he is going to make good. And the quality of evil in each heart (that is, what sort of heart is disposed to evil) came about through its own evildoing, which grew from the choice of the will. Still, those evils in quality, so that the heart is moved this way or that, when it is moved to evil this way or that way, comes to be by causes by which the soul is driven. And whether these causes either exist or do not exist is not within the power of man. They come from the providence of God that is hidden, most just and clearly most wise, who disposes and administers the universe that he created. So that Pharaoh had such a heart, which was not moved by God’s patience to piety but rather to impiety, was the result of his own vice. But that those things happened by which his heart, so evil by its own vice, resisted God’s command—it is called hardened because it did not bend and agree but resisted unbendingly—was of divine dispensation. It was not unjust to such a heart. It was clearly a just punishment [that] was being prepared, by which those who feared God would be corrected. For example: when money is offered for the commission of homicide, a greedy man is moved in one way, but one who disdains money is moved in another way. The former is moved to commit the crime, the latter to being cautious. Yet the offer of the money itself was not under the control of either of them. Thus motives come to evil men that indeed are not under their control, but they act from these motives as they find them already established from their own past willing. We should consider whether the phrase can be understood in this way: I shall harden, as if he were saying, I shall show how hard his heart is.

On the same basis, you would not be able to point to anyone of the past generations approaching a pregnant woman in the pages of Scripture. Only later, after the birth and weaning of the child, would you again find the wives in physical relations with their husbands. You will find that Moses’ father observed this point. He left a three-year gap after Aaron’s birth before fathering Moses.